Updating previous post about Homeaway vacation rentals website advertising during the Super Bowl.  I think it is a really good move!  You can just imagine the possible scenarios of the Griswold’s rolling into cheesy hotels, cramped into a single small room and piling in unexpectedly at friends homes along the way! Pretty impressive that Homeaway recreated the original wood paneled station wagon and signed on Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo.  Looking forward to the commercials and... Read Full Story

Home Away – aka Homeaway.com, Vacationrentals.com, Vrbo.com, etc. announces that they will be advertising in February 2010 Super Bowl.  Vacation homeowners and managers report receiving emails advising them that Homeaway based in Austin, Texas will be advertising during Superbowl XLIV in Miami, Florida. Great news for vacation rental owners and vacation rental directories as this will help draw even more attention to the value of renting a furnished vacation home as an alternative to s... Read Full Story

We’re updating the Furnished Homes vacation rental map owner and manager panels.  We will be implementing a streamlined panel for vacation homeowners to track hits to your listings, Google analytics, easy upgrades and subscriptions. Look for an announcement in the next week or so about the new owner panel launch and site updates.  By the way – Furnished Homes is searching well in a number of keyword categories at Google, Bing and Yahoo. Read Full Story

Vacation Rental owners can now post to their listings that they are interested in the possibility of exchanging vacation rentals with other owners.  Make other owners aware that you are open to possible trades – my beach house for your ski cabin?  Select the option in step 1 of add or edit a property and it will appear instantly in your listing. $39 standard and $99 preferred listings can now be paid monthly or quarterly via auto-pay with Google Checkout.  If you add a property or upgr... Read Full Story

Vacationrentals.com, part of the Homeaway network, is starting to increase advertising rates in October.  Renewals for listings for 3 months listings will increase on October 6, 2009 from $69 to $99, an increase of nearly 45%.  A one year listing at Vacationrentals.com will increase from $169 to $199 per year, or approximately 18% higher. The Austin, Texas based company states that inquiries to owners is up 25 percent over last year and traffic to the site is up 20 percent over last year. Fur... Read Full Story

Vacation rental map site Furnishedhomes.com secures and authenticates site for visitors with leading online SSL provider Comodo.  Furnished Homes domain name is authenticated by Comodo.com and provides for strong encryption for a secure HTTPS connection.  Why Furnishedhomes.com chooses Comodo for online security? Comodo is a leading global provider of Identity and Trust Assurance services on the Internet, with over 500,000 customers worldwide. Headquartered in New Jersey with global offices ... Read Full Story

We’ve upgraded the vacation rental map and details pages at Furnished Homes!  Here’s some quick views of the details pages.  If you have a Youtube video for your home it will be the first picture (video) that travelers see.  We’re still tweeking the page and will keep you posted.  In the meantime why not post your rentals today! New Details page embeds 2 more maps! Added bold images and owner rates section Quick Property Amenties overview / Owner Stats Improved Nearby Attra... Read Full Story

This is definitely NOT Vacationey!  Great pick honey! Having owned or managed hundreds of vacation rentals I speak from experience when I ask – “Is your vacation rental vacationey?”  Often I am asked what does it take to turn a home into “a vacation home”.  That’s a great question!  Some homes quiet frankly were never meant to be vacation homes!  They are located in perhaps a really bad location, the owners just threw some furniture in the place from yard ... Read Full Story

Thank you Margaret for posting a new property to the vacation rental map in Germany!  If you are a holiday homeowner or manager you should take a look at Margaret’s site for her self catering apartments in the Bavarian Forest.  The site goes to great lengths to provide the traveler with peace of mind. What is peace of mind to a traveler?  A professional representation of the rentals, fantastic area info and suggestions, how to travel in the area, clear images and guest reviews.  When o... Read Full Story

Recent question to support team – “Your vacation rental offering is very good and listing fees are really low – do you take a commission for leads or bookings?” Answer:  Nope.  When you list your vacation properties on the Furnished Homes map – you receive all the visitor inquiries.  Owners and property managers are contacted directly.  Furnished Homes is a listing venue and not a booking service.  In other words we do not take a piece of your pie.  You get the ... Read Full Story